The Sacramento Beereports that a California police chief “is asking for a local ordinance that requires motel and hotel operators to hand over their guest registries to his officers. If innkeepers fail to do so, at any hour of the day, they could be fined or jailed.”

Innkeepers are critical of the plan.

Providing the home address, credit card number, vehicle license number and other private information of law-abiding patrons is an invasion of privacy, said [Michael Belote, who represents about 1,000 California motel and hotel operators, including some in Roseville].

“We want to be careful with the personal information of our guests,” Belote said.

Some California cities already have such laws in place, and “some ordinances in other cities allow nearly any city employee to access the registries, according to the lodging association.”